Genres: action, comedy Themes: bounty hunters, girls with guns, police Objectionable content: Significant Number of episodes: 3 Vintage: 1995-11-01 to 1996-09-01 Plot Summary: Rally Vincent knows her weapons well, while her partner Minne May Hopkins loves to play with explosives. The pair run a gun-shop illegally and one day Bill Collins of the ATF, blackmails Rally and Minnie May into working for the ATF. Little do they know, that they are getting involved in a mission larger than they could imagine.
Out of Print: Available through Amazon or Ebay auction
Press and Reviews:
Mania.com Review
Gunsmith Cats was just a sheer joy to watch. We’ve seen a wide variety of shows over the years and this has always been a favorite for working in a genre that often gets overlooked both in Japan and in US acquisition. The attention to detail that went into the show is high and it shows in the episodes. Gunsmith Cats provided us with 90 minutes of great escapism with style and action that should leave most people happy.
Highly recommended.
Grade: A
ANN Review
In summation, Gunsmith Cats is an excellent introductory piece of anime. See this, then graduate to something a little more “Japanese”. If you’re an anime veteran, still pick it up. It’s a solid piece of fun filmmaking, there aren’t 15 volumes to buy, and can you really go wrong with girls, guns, and grenades?
Overall (dub) : A
Overall (sub) : A-[/quote]
Amazon.com
Handsomely designed and skillfully executed, Gunsmith Cats is slick, fast-paced, and extremely violent. Director Takeshi Mori builds suspense and tension so effectively, he imbues the shootouts and stabbings with an impact many gorier anime series lack.
What more can be said about Gunsmith Cats? It’s one of ADV’s most beloved and iconic older titles, and one that consistently got and still gets a lot of praise. The critics are uniform in the acclaim they’ve given this series for a reason.
Gunsmith Cats is the definitive series that got me hooked on ADV production and series when I first saw it around 2000. This is one of those series where ADV’s dub really helped make this series memorable, with a veteran cast of familiar names.
It’s a really special series for a lot of reasons. Great and fun characters, entertaining action sequences, interesting trappings… this is just a show that’s a ton of fun to watch. It also has one of the best Car Chase scenes in all of anime! Can’t go wrong with that. B) Every ADV fan or Anime collector should have this in their collection in my opinion, it’s that good. Great replay value too.
Sadly, the series has been long Out of Print and it’s only available at Ebay or Amazon Auctions for around $50. (I’ve been begging ADV to reissue it and put it on Anime Network again ;)… but with the Anime market and economy as it is recently… I’m not holding my breath). It’s a steep price of admission but well worth it in my opinion. It’s one of my most cherished titles of my collection, not only for collectors purposes, but the content within. If someone asked me to take 5 ADV titles with me to a desert island – without hesitation or thought, this would be one of them.
(5 sec into Anime Network trailer has a small part of the Car Chase mentioned above)
I still got my copy: an Anime Essential version which I got along with Plastic Little, also featuring the voice of Amanda Wynn Lee. Best damn car chase in an anime ever.
I also have the Anime Essential release. Good to hear I’m not alone in loving that chase scene.
I need to dig in and rewatch this gem one of these Weekends!
Also here’s a little fun factoid that some might remember during the Anime Network 2008 Christmas Contest/3 year Forum anniversary… one of the more famous lines in Anime, No Pizza, and NO Chinese is from Gunsmith Cats.
One of the things that appeals in this series is the cool depiction of Americana – Shelby GT-500 and Chicago. Very few series get that aspect right when they try to portray other regions/countries, especially Western portrayals.
I was lucky enough to grab this for $30 on ebay, and even nabbed a copy that was in great shape. I had always heard praise for this series, so I thought I would give it a go.
I was pleasantly surprised. The animation has held up extremely well, especially considering this series dates back to 1994. The dub is also quite good, and actually quite exceptional when you realize it’s over 10 years old now. I can only think of one weak spot in the show, and that was the VA for the second female lead. She wasn’t bad per se, but she fell into that old anime trap of trying to sound young and not quite pulling it off.
There is also a tremendous amount of detail and research that went into the production of this show. They even use replicas of real American cars in the production. That’s not something you really see everyday.
Regardless, I really recommend this show. And it’s a TBS show, so I think that gives it a slightly better chance of being revived someday.
I am doing this from memory, forgive me if I am off.
The ages of character are 18 and 24 at least for the American release.
There was a reason for second lead (May) looking younger.
VA does match the original. Typical Whining Voice aka Linda Invernese.
I’m happy to announce that the chipboard case with integrated artbook is back in the Premium set. We discussed it with Mr. Sonoda and he’s OK with the form-factor as it relates to the dojinshi content.
We’ve also added an 8.5x11" artbook variant to the goodies list (the same size as we did on Otaku no Video), so we can get the best of both worlds.
Also we’ve tweaked the campaign with some more info, a new pitch video, etc.
Natsumi and I will be on vacation from the 9th-23rd with limited internet access, but we’ll make final revisions after we return.
